(Temporary Backup) 11 June 2025

My life feels very busy right now. 

I had three graduations.

 My son from college.

 

The other son from high school. 

My step son from high school. 

Now we are trying to figure out summer plans. Not my idea of a good time. I just want to stay home most of the time. But to get my Veteran discount I need to be there. It’s not that I don’t want to go, but it can be so hard to do somethings once I’m there. 

That is why I am more of a homebody. 

The most exciting part of my life at times is the fact I grow chili peppers.

I was outside looking at what I have. 

A ghost pepper. 

Scorpion pepper. 

Tobacco pepper. 

Bird pepper. 

Then my wife wanted to grow okra. 

We have Swiss chard, a tomato, cucumber, and watermelon. Then I learned dill is good to keep the bugs away. Sorry I didn’t have pictures of everything. 

It’s a very mild summer for San Antonio, so far. Hope it’s not too much of a scorcher. 

24 May 2025

Please read to the end. 

I had a very interesting experience on facebook the past few days. 

The post and comments were a clear case of Oversimplification Fallacy.

 

I like things to be simple as much as the next person, but life is anything but simple. 

The constitution has its plan text, but it also has nearly 250 years of judicial interpretation, that destroy any hope of plain text interpretation. Plan text reading will not help anyone. We have to dig in to the text, the judicial interpretations, and then the retranslating into common English. Then some us, like myself need a school house rock version. 

I am not an attorney, but I like some legal stuff. 

I come from Vernal, Utah. The Dinosaur Capital of the World. I love many things about Vernal and the surrounding area. But most everyone that comes from there, myself included, are simple minded folk. There are lots of well educated people, but people from there don’t want needless complexity. Still in many ways it is a very isolated community. At one time it was the largest city(?)in the US without a train system running through it. As far as I know there is still no train system that goes there. 

 

I have had to work hard to understand certain concepts that my semi sheltered, Vernal upbringing didn’t offer. I had to learn that the world is a lot bigger and more complex than I ever realized or imagined. 

The comments of the Facebook post seemed to devolve in people telling me I was wrong because I didn’t understand the plain text of the constitution. The courts have interpreted it so much that you can’t stick with a plain text interpretation. 

The fifth amendment on the constitution website talking about who is and is not a “Person” in the US:

“The Supreme Court’s jurisprudence indicates that, although aliens present within the United States generally have due process protections, the extent of those constitutional protections may depend on certain factors, including whether the alien has been lawfully admitted or developed ties to the United States, and whether the alien has engaged in specified criminal activity. Therefore, even with regard to aliens present within the United States, the Court has sometimes deferred to Congress’s policy judgments that limit the ability of some classes of aliens to contest their detention or removal.”

 Or read the website if you like. 

https://constitution.congress.gov/browse/essay/amdt5-6-2-3/ALDE_00013726/

I know I am usually not the smartest person in the room. That said I have more experience than I would ever want to admit. Certain aspects of this world are complex and messy and more difficult than we would like.   

Now that I have said that, each of us can be the smartest person in the room about something, butwe can choose to be meek. 

Meek is not weak. A Meek person can be the smartest person in the room. But the  Meek person does not go out of his or her way to prove that he or she is smarter about something. I need to remember that. 

For years I have had to just be quiet about all kinds of things. Lots of people think they are right about something. Certain things I know I am correct about. Unless it is a matter of life or death, I need to remember to be quiet. 

There are lots of things I don’t know, like the airspeed of an unladen swallow, and other more important things. So I can ask people that are smarter than me about certain issues. 

One thing I can understand well is mechanical issues. The most frustrating thing some days is knowing how something works but not being able to explain it to someone else and being physically incapable. For me, talking like everyone else is a challenge sometimes and movement can be excruciating.

 

There is so much I want to take part in but for various reasons I can’t. For example, I would love to help others move furniture at times, but I do an amazing job of getting in the way. Helping actually move things, not so much. 

That said I know a lot about certain subjects. I hate it when people don’t ask or pay attention at times. But it’s just easier to be quiet at times. 

I have to do better at being quiet and just being there. I know, I know a lot. So what. I don’t need to share my knowledge with everyone. In fact it’s better if we don’t at times. 

Meek? I’m probably not. I have to be reminded by life to much.

24 April 2025…..hmmm

I have to worry about things that many people will never have to worry about, at least at this age I am right now. 

I have a shower bench. Very helpful. But not every shower bench is created equal. 

I had to get a shower bench for my new house. Normal. I ask the VA for one. 

I ask in December. 

Then I called in January. It was back logged. They said everything since November was backlogged. 

Nothing new. 

I wanted to shower at my house. So I went to Home Depot and bought a bench /stool. 

Do you know how much a shower bench costs?

Well I do now. 

Not inexpensive. And the box was covered in dust. 

I went with the less expensive option. Big mistake. 

Expensive,yes. Durable construction? No. 

I have received most things I need from the VA for the last 10 plus years. So when I buy a shower bench/stool for the first time I really had sticker shock.

 

So we got home my wife put it together. The first week no problem.

 

Then I noticed I was sliding into the wall. 

The legs on one side were wider than the other side. I was able to squeeze the legs back together. 

After about two more weeks the legs were spreading open again. 

Then some one took the bench out of the shower and put it in opposite/backwards from the way it had been. Then one day I’m sitting on it and fall over. 

So do I go by a new bench. 

No. To expensive for my taste. I got some 550 cord and a stick and fixed with my wife’s help. 

Oh, and finally in April I got the shower bench I requested in December. Nothing like speedy service. 

15 March 2025….beware the ides of March

News if you can call it that is nothing more than cheap entertainment. 

Political news even more so.

 We all have an unhealthy fascination with political stuff. It is important, but not nearly as important as most of us think it is. 

Local in state politics in more important.

I’m going to delete some apps like YouTube from my phone and iPad. I can use my desktop or TV if I need YouTube. 

The government is not going to blow up. But we would probably be better off if it did. 

This week has been spring break for three of my children and my stepson. My other son has spring break next week. Ugh. 

I haven’t let people know like I should but we bought a house.

 We have been moving in slowly. The lease for the apartment we have been in end at the end of April. So we have been moving slowly. Not all bad. I think I’m finding some stuff I really don’t need anymore. I don’t know how we were able to fit and stuff we have in the apartment.

Now we’re in the house and life is better.

Things I wanted; walking distance to church and shopping. Got that. The church building is half mile away. I’ve been going to that building for years. That said I’m in a different ward and stake. Or church building houses four wards from three different stakes. 

There is a Walmart and HEB and tons of stuff in walking distance. We stopped by the Asian supermarket. That might be fun to use sometimes. 

8 February 2025……

So we have President Trump again and the world has not blown up yet. Please let me know if it does. 

I watched the news on YouTube for a couple days but after the first day it was just clips and commentary on everything that had already happened.

So my opinion and thoughts are confirmed. Politics is the entertainment branch of the government. Whether you think it’s comedy, tragedy, farce, terror, etc., etc. 

Personally I like some of what is going on. Some things make perfect sense. Some things make no sense. But it’s all entertainment. The last 4 years was a comedy of errors and a tragedy in my opinion. Some people loved it. Some hate it.  I have know idea why people hate everything now so much. I would love to understand why. 

Now you may have different opinions than me, but that is not a problem. If you have a problem with my opinion that is how life goes. At least I would hope that’s how it goes. I have had so many people on Facebook unfriend me for I have known idea why.

One thing about politics of the United States particularly, we are a form of entertainment. Many countries politics are a form of entertainment.  The United States is more so for the rest of the world. Australia, Great Britain, Brazil, India, and probably more. The entertainment may be a tragedy for some people, for other people it is a comedy. It’s all entertainment. It does effect people’s lives but it is still entertainment. 

I would say that anything political should be delayed for at least a day or maybe more. Sure the public needs to know what is happening but we don’t have to watch the crap leaving the butt of the donkey or elephant as it’s happening in real time. That said it is kind of nice to know what is happening when it happens. Opposition in all things, again.

21 January 2025……<3

In lots of ways, I live in a perfect storm.

This morning, for example it snowed last night. Granted not a lot, but considering it hasn’t snowed for three years it is quite a thing here. So it is freezing outside and my plants are mostly outside. I hope they survive.

Why are the plants outside? Well, we are in the process of moving. We have so many boxes inside the apartment that I can hardly move my wheelchair. I can go from my bedroom to the front door and bathroom and maybe the kitchen. It is ridiculous. This world really was made for walking people. People in wheelchairs are second class citizens in many ways. That’s why I call most walking people “you people”.

Then I’d like to exercise, my body really needs it. I really don’t want to live forever, but my quality of life is much better if I exercise. I may have to take up high risk hobbie(skydiving, bungee jumping, etc.,) and maybe I can die sooner.I bought myself a rowing machine, but that ended up being too hard, and a feet of acrobatics to get on and off, the rowing machine is not easy to get on and off. .

So I bought a recumbent bicycle. Much easier to get on and off. And I use an app that lets me see different areas around the world that people have video recorded while they were riding their bicycle, but today, maybe because it’s so cold, the video was buffering like I was using dial up Internet, until the last 10 seconds of the video, then it was  clear and smooth, but the previous 30 minutes was pathetic.

In lots of ways, my life sucks but in many other ways, my life is OK.

18 January 2025…..and there was much rejoicing.

January 20th 2025, the end of an error. 

I will say I’m kind of excited for the possibilities of having a new president. I have not been overly excited about some things in the previous term. Let’s see what happens.

Overall, I would say politics is the entertainment arm of the government. It is very important, unfortunately. But the fact that so many people watch it and hope for some kind of an outcome that they like, is part of the reason why I call it the entertainment branch of the government.

I would say we have a real Democrat going into the office of president and the left mad.

The Democratic party does not exist anymore except for local elections, federally The Democratic Party is dead.  Some mayors and school boards are still Democrat. Federally the Democratic Party is dead and the Republican Party(MAGA) has become the Democratic party of the past.

So the only way you can be a real Democrat is, if you are voting for someone in some cities or local elections. San Antonio, for example, would be impossible to be a real Democrat because the city is too big.  The only way you can be a real Republican is to vote in some cities and local elections.

I hate watching political stuff. I watch YouTube a lot and do not like watching the political stuff but somehow it always brings the political stuff back up like I want to watch it. I don’t want to watch all the political stuff. Let me watch videos about growing peppers and other gardening or blacksmithing or other things. That said the political garbage always comes back up. It’s like the vomit is returning to the dog, the political stuff being the vomit and me being the dog. 

I am interested to see what will happen during the next four years. I have had my concerns. that said not nearly as many as the last four years.

One person I know, and many other people, were upset about Donald Trump being elected and it was because of abortion. Abortion isn’t even a federal thing. It is a state thing.

I do love watching some of the meltdowns of people that are upset with the federal presidential election. One more reason I called YouTube and politics entertainment.

But right now if anyone of you get sent to a “concentration camp”, let me know and I will send you a box of cookies or two. If I get sent to a concentration camp, send me a box of cookies, please. 

If you don’t like the Presidental outcome, that’s OK we can still be friends. One thing that I am annoyed with is people thinking that they can’t be friends with someone who thinks different than them politically. My cousin decided to block me years ago on Facebook because he disagreed with me politically. Funny but sad. Oh well.